Tag: No Child Left Behind

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GOP Gubernatorial candidate Joseph R. Rullo Pushes School Choice

Rullo 12 news
April 22,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, GOP Gubernatorial candidate Joseph R. Rullo gave us some thoughts on public education policy ,”The NJ Abbott school districts need to be held accountable for wasteful spending and all districts need to work together to reduce cost. This will reduce the impact of inevitable changes in funding formulas with state aid. After all school districts cut wasteful spending, we need to implement fair funding formulas for property tax relief.  One example is all school districts can drastically reduce costs by combined purchasing power. Another example is drastically reducing the number of Superintendents and redundant assistant Superintendents.  High cost business administrators should also be reduced.”

Rullo , went on ,”Since the start of No Child Left Behind and continued under Race to the Top, NJ parents and students have been saddled with the Common Core Standards. Parents feel like they can’t help their children with their homework because it is something they have never learned before and the children are left floundering in schools with too many children and not enough teachers to explain things to them. The State then decided to force the PARCC (Partnership for Readiness for College and Careers) test on our children. This has resulted in schools and teachers focusing their teaching efforts, not on learning, but on test results. This is wrong and only hurts our children who deserve a comprehensive learning program not a regimen of tests.”

Rullo said as Governor I will end PARCC testing completely and direct the Department of Education to draw up new, independent education standards that will return NJ to the top of the best educated Students in the Country.

With the Trump budget increasing spending on school choice and the Secretary of Education pushing choice as well as local control Rullo is a big supporter of school choice and home schooling.

Rulo added , “Students come out of High School and don’t know how to balance a checkbook, write a resume or know anything about personal credit. Common Core needs to become Common Sense. Teachers need to be allowed to teach and not recite facts mandated from Washington, or some Corporation making money from our tax dollars. We need to provide better opportunities for students who decide to enter the workforce directly from high school with expanded vocational schools. The future of New Jersey depends on it!”

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Poor Children Deserve an Education too

Betsy DeVos as Secretary of the Department of Education

 

January 17,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, so who’s Afraid of Betsy DeVos? “Mrs. Devos’s Most Important Qualification is that She Has the Courage of Her Convictions”, in an editorial the Wall Street Journal attempts to answer the critics and make the case to provide poor children with better educational opportunities. We know the unions don’t like it and neither do Democrat, lawmakers looking to stifle their constituents keeping them fat, dumb and happy.
Who’s Afraid of Betsy DeVos?
The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal Opinion
January 14th, 2017
Click Here to Read

Democrats are searching for a cabinet nominee to defeat, and it’s telling that progressive enemy number one is Betsy DeVos. Donald Trump’s choice to run the Education Department has committed the unpardonable sin of devoting much of her fortune to helping poor kids escape failing public schools.

Mrs. DeVos’s most important qualification is that she has the courage of her convictions.

The DeVoses have donated tens of millions of dollars to charity including a children’s hospital in Michigan and an international art competition in Grand Rapids. They’ve also given to Christian organizations, which the left cites as evidence of concealed bigotry. Yet education has been their main philanthropic cause.

During the 1990s, they patronized a private-school scholarship fund for low-income families and championed Michigan’s first charter school law. In 2000 they helped bankroll a voucher initiative, which was defeated by a union blitz. The DeVoses then turned to expanding charters, which have become Exhibit A in the progressive campaign against her.

Two studies from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (2013, 2015) found that students attending Michigan charters gained on average an additional two months of learning every year over their traditional school counterparts. Charter school students in Detroit gained three months.

The real reason unions fear Mrs. DeVos is that she’s a rare reformer who has defeated them politically. Prior to being tapped by Mr. Trump, she chaired the American Federation for Children (AFC), which has helped elect hundreds of legislators across the country who support private school choice.

AFC has built a broad coalition that includes black and Latino Democrats, undercutting the union conceit that vouchers are a GOP plot to destroy public schools. In 2000 four states had private-school choice programs with 29,000 kids. Today, 25 states have vouchers, tax-credit scholarships or education-savings accounts benefitting more than 400,000 students.

You know progressives have lost their moral bearings when they save their most ferocious assault for a woman who wants to provide poor children with the education they need to succeed in America.

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Feds renew N.J. waiver of No Child Left Behind law for 3 years

BOE_theridgewoodblog

JULY 23, 2015, 10:33 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015, 10:36 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

New Jersey received a three-year pass to continue education programs and reforms put in place by the Christie administration, including a new educator evaluation system despised by the teachers union.

The U.S. Department of Education told seven states on Thursday that they had renewed their waivers, letting them continue practices that vary from the federal No Child Left Behind law.

New Jersey’s three-year waiver, approved without conditions, was described by state officials as an “affirmation” that what they’re doing is working.

“New Jersey can take pride knowing that our efforts are leading to real improvements in student learning,” New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe said in a news release.

State officials say education reforms are helping to close the achievement gap and give quality educational opportunities to all students. But the state’s largest teachers union, which has publicly sparred with the administration on such issues as pension, evaluations and testing, said the renewal was “pro-forma” and doesn’t mean schools are getting better.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/feds-renew-n-j-waiver-of-no-child-left-behind-law-for-3-years-1.1379842

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How We Can Stop the Expansion of the Federal Government Into Our Classrooms

RHS_BEST_theridgewoodblog

 

Scott Garrett : I voted today to give control of our children’s education back to parents, teachers, and school boards by supporting H.R. 5, the Student Success Act.

New Jersey has many of the best schools and educators in the United States, yet the parents I speak to are concerned about the negative impact that federal programs like Common Core are having on the quality of our students’ education. For years, Washington has dangled federal funds in front of states and forced them to adopt their one-size-fits-all standards—this has to stop. The Student Success Act is an important first step towards ending the cycle of federal coercion and allowing New Jersey to determine its own success.

Rep. Mark Walker / @repmarkwalker / July 08, 2015

Rep. Mark Walker, a Republican, represents North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Innovation starts locally—not in Washington.

Yet, over the past few years, we have witnessed the unprecedented expansion of the federal government into our classrooms.

Decades of regulations, mandates and rules have been piling up on our educators, but failing to improve our students’ education.

Congress is set to reconsider, and potentially reauthorize, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

This law outlines federal programs for K-12 education and was last reauthorized in 2002 as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which further expanded Washington’s intrusion in our schools by creating new federal mandates.

No Child Left Behind also expired in 2007.

This means the Obama administration has been able to operate without certain limitations and has strong-armed states into complying with its liberal education agenda.

Thankfully, we have the opportunity to get Uncle Sam out of the business of micromanaging our schools from the top-down and return control to our local families, educators and officials.

This week in the House, my colleagues and I are revisiting the way Washington approaches our K-12 federal education policy with consideration of H.R. 5, the Student Success Act.

This bill repeals and reforms many failed education policies like the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) mandate, but I challenge that we can do even better for our children and future generations.

Conservatives have the largest majority in Congress that we have had in years, and we have a real opportunity to stand against Washington’s culture of bureaucracy and make a difference in our federal approach to education—let’s ensure we truly return education decisions back to the local-level.

We all agree that local communities—and ultimately parents—are best equipped to meet the unique needs of each student. Accordingly, they should be able to decide how best to utilize federal funding.

This is why I introduced the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) amendment to the Student Success Act with Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06). The A-PLUS amendment would give states maximum flexibility by allowing them to opt-out of federal mandates and programs while retaining federal funding.

We can strengthen the Student Success Act’s goal of removing the federal government from our classrooms with this simple, common sense policy change.

States and taxpayers should be able to keep their dollars, opt-out of federal education programs without repercussion and focus on the needs of their students and communities.

Greater flexibility will yield greater accountability. A-PLUS would truly restore local control of education.

The status quo is failing our children and we need to ensure each child has access to a quality education and the opportunity to achieve their dreams.

Increasing local control of education and empowering parents and children through school choice initiatives is how we break these patterns and foster innovation in our school systems.

A-PLUS would restore state and local control of education and put parents, teachers and school leaders back in the driver’s seat.

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Proposed reform of No Child Left Behind spurs concern in North Jersey

RHS_theridgewoodblog

JULY 6, 2015, 8:55 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2015, 7:55 AM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

North Jersey schools have made strides to improve graduation rates and narrow the performance gap among student groups of different races and income levels, state and national reports have shown.

Now concerns are being raised about how proposed changes to federal education law could impact progress in states like New Jersey. Officials and educators largely agree that the federal No Child Left Behind Act needs to be reformed, but they disagree on what a new law should look like.

Federal officials said Monday that proposed bills to overhaul the law lack the accountability needed to make sure struggling students get the help and investments they need, especially in the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools. The officials released a report showing that wide gaps still exist across states, despite improvements in graduation rates and achievement gaps.

“We have to make sure every state develops a structure to identify and help the lowest-performing schools,” Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, said in a phone call with reporters.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/proposed-reform-of-no-child-left-behind-spurs-concern-in-north-jersey-1.1369581

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Who should decide our children’s education

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Who should decide our children’s education

NOVEMBER 7, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
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Who should decide education?
David and Terry Anzano

To the Editor:

Public education was intended to be locally controlled by parents and taxpayers. Ridgewood is arguably one of the best local, fully-funded districts in the state with some of the finest teachers and administrators working in our classrooms. For example, the wonderful music program showcases one of many areas of Ridgewood’s “Tradition of Excellence.”

We have become increasingly concerned that parental control is being replaced by mandated state and federal requirements which are tied to Stabilization Aid, waivers from No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top money. This funding dictates high-stakes testing, nationalized copy written standards, state longitudinal data systems and teacher evaluations.

So who decides what is best for our students? Is it the parents working with our teachers and administrators setting an educational path best for the individual learner? Or is it the state’s “one size fits all” approach? What role does our superintendent and Board of Education serve in securing our right to control our local education? Indeed our superintendent has stated that he is an agent of the state carrying out mandated directives from Trenton and Washington, D.C.

https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-who-should-decide-our-children-s-education-1.1128795